S&M sex linked to Kansas murder mystery

Published: Saturday, June 10, 2000

OLATHE, Kan. {AP} Even to the neighbors who shared their garden vegetables with John Edward Robinson and saw him working in his yard and doting on his grandchildren, there were disturbing things they couldn't help noticing.

There was the surveillance camera he installed on his home, facing the street, and tense arguments between the 56-year-old Robinson and his wife. There were allegations he propositioned some neighbors for sex, and there were often barrels and loading tools in his truck.

Over the past week, police have colored in that picture with sinister details.

They say Robinson trolled the Internet for sadomasochistic sex under the name "slavemaster" and may be connected to the deaths or disappearance of at least nine people, including five women who were bludgeoned to death and stuffed in barrels.

While Robinson's lawyer has said his client is innocent and is unfairly being branded a serial killer, prosecutors have said their case against Robinson continues to grow. No murder charges have been brought against him.

Robinson was arrested June 2 at his home at Santa Barbara Estates, a quiet, tree-lined mobile home park managed by his wife in Olathe. He was charged with sexually assaulting two women at hotels in the area and held on $5 million bail.

The two women including a Texas psychologist who came to Kansas for an S&M encounter with Robinson in April told authorities they objected to his photographing them and said he brutalized them in a way that went beyond what they intended.

Armed with evidence from Robinson's arrest in those cases, detectives went to a 16-acre piece of land he owns in La Cygne, Kan., 35 miles away. Near a trailer, investigators found two 55-gallon industrial barrels, each containing a woman's body.

Two days later, three more bodies were found in barrels inside a storage locker he had rented across the state line in Raymore, Mo.

Investigators have since said that Robinson was investigated in the disappearances of three women and an infant in the mid-1980s, but that no bodies were found and authorities were never able to prove foul play.